Wednesday, April 22, 2009

PPD up to Old Tricks

On April 17, 2009, JS reporter Catherine Schaidle Bonnie Noble and the Peoria Park District combined in a "pull the wool" over a naive and sometime apathetic Peoria citizenry. Schaidle wrote "East Bluff land catches Park District's Eye". This property on Glen Oak Park was to be used to build Glen Oak School.

Had Ms. Schaidle looked a little deeper, she would have found $1.2 million in Republican Rep. Schock's appropriations and stimulus ill for guess what?? Glen Oak Park Open Space Acquisition.

So lets see how this plays out. The badly run #150 School District bought this East Bluff land and houses for approximately $850,000.00 and with the park's permission, planned to tear these houses down and build a school on this public property, also using existing PPD land. The deal fell through when the community rose up in arms and by a 4 to 3 vote, the PPD backed out of what appeared to be a "done deal" between the PPD and #150. These actions and the unauthorized erasure of Executive Tapes by the Executive Secretary; note Administrator Bonnie Noble is Assistant Executive Secretary (Hmmmmm), led to a lawsuit against the PPD by community concerned Karrie Alms and Sara Partridge; a lawsuit that the PPD elected to settle out of court even though Judge Barra found The PPD in violation of the Open Meeting Act.

So now Schock, susposedly acting in the best interests of the public, is getting $1.2million stimulus earmark money to give to the PPD to buy these houses and land back from #150. When the cooperative deal fell through, #150 hired Chinese teachers and housed the Chinese teachers in these homes. #150 no longer offers Chinese classes and kids are back to reading and understanding English.

So Schock, Noble, Hinton and Co. are sticking the taxpayer again. Property taxes were lost when the schools bought the homes, property taxpayers paid to buy these homes through #150, Schock's Earmark will cost the taxpayers another $1.2 million to give to the PPD to buy this boondoggle back to use as open space that the park needs like another hole in administrations heads.

Oh, what wicked webs we weave. Schock, Lahood and Leitch and Co. berate the Democrats for our fiscal problems when the only difference between the two parties when it comes to OPM is that the Democrats tax and spend and the Republicans tax and borrow.

For the 10th time I've blogged on it, wake up Peoria, your top leaders are leading you like sheep into a fantasy la-la land.

Just as a reminder, all this stimulus money and earmark money has to someday be paid back with more taxes. Expect them, they are coming at an accelerated rate.

8 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Schock is a quick learner; I think we can expect a lot of pork to flow into the 18th. It's just that my kids and their kids (and maybe THEIR kids) will have to pay, and pay, and pay for Schock's and the Republicans' penchant for borrowing and spending. It's so effortless too; and they can cut our taxes at the same time. Just goes to prove the Republicans are all about "me", not "us". How very, very sad.

These homes should have never been placed in that corner of the park; they were built well after the orginal park was developed. They should come down. What does this man that sold overpriced file cabinets for a living know about park planning? Go run a school bus of the road, Merle.

No one had to buy anything from my company no more than anyone needs to buy anything from anyone as there are always competitors.

I sat on a "feel good" Peoria Park District Advisory Committee for 3 1/2 years. I ran for park board president and drew nearly 5,000 votes spending approximately $1 per vote while my opponent spent approximately $3 per vote while the JSEB and the JS itself did everything it possibly could to keep the long term incumbent in office.

I've followed the park more closely than you even if you work for the PPD.

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Born on a farm between Congerville and Carlock, Il., graduated from Normal Commnity High School, served in Armed Services, graduated from Western Illinois University, Macomb, Il., Taught and was head Basketball Coach in High Schools for 5 years. Worked for a Fortune 500 Campany 8 years, 5 in management.
Opened my own business in 1964 with 2 employees in Peoria, opened multiple stores and offices in Central Illinois and sold out in 1992. My name still uses my name, Widmer Interiors, which was a division of my company which started selling filing systems and grew to $11 million in sales as a company similar to Staples.
At the age of 75, I was elected to the Peoria County board and served 3 complete terms,4 years as Board Vice-Chairman..
Tennis is my recreation and I have over 200 trophies all won between tne ages of 55-85.. I am married to Claire and have 2 lovely daughters from a previous marriage. My only son is deceased. I have 3 grandsons, one lovely daughter-in-law, one son-in-law and numours grandchildren and great-grand-children.
I have posted over 2500 blogs since 2004. Read, enjoy, or dis-agree but I stick to the facts to the best of my knowledge.